


let them be carried like seeds on the wind

by apatternedfever



Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Chimes at Midnight spoilers, Gen, but mostly A Local Habitation centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 23:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1204912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apatternedfever/pseuds/apatternedfever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tamed Lightning teaches Quentin a lesson about responsibility.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let them be carried like seeds on the wind

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Quentin, [Call the Names](http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858780204/).

His parents do what they can to teach him about responsibility. About keeping his people safe. They try to explain the weight that will someday fall on him, but he's young when he goes to Shadowed Hills, and he doesn't understand. Even seeing Toby's reaction to Dare's death doesn't bring the realization down. It's a shame, and he can see how she takes it onto himself, but he doesn't _understand_.

January is different. January, and Peter, and Colin, and even Terrie. Even the way April looks after her mother's death, too grown up compared to who she was when he first met her. Even, despite himself and despite not knowing if she deserves it, Gordan. They stay with him.

It's not his fault; anyone would say it, and he doesn't pretend it is. That's absolving Gordan of too much guilt, and implicitly putting too much on Toby, on April, on anyone else who didn't figure it out and stop it. But he can't forget it anyway. 

There are so few deaths, in Faerie. He only has the barest memories of the couple that were announced to his parents before he left for Shadowed Hills. They never seemed to matter, and he never understood why his parents cared so much when the names were barely even familiar. And he isn't a king yet. He doesn't think he'll really understand what his parents mean, not until he's in their place. Not until it really is his responsibility, and not a vague, far-flung someday.

But the first time he sees a glimpse of it, the first time he starts to think about what's ahead, is after Tamed Lightning.

There's nothing to do about it, no way to bring them back, no resolution his realizations can bring. But he carries it with him, and he takes care of the Hippocampi when April offers them to him. It's a reminder.

And maybe one day, when he _is_ a king, he'll have a better grasp of what he needs to be reminded of. For now, he thinks maybe remembering is enough.


End file.
